Bryan Betty: Pneumonia

Pope Francis has spent a month in hospital, struggling with bilateral pneumonia – but what exactly is this infection? 

 

What is pneumonia?  

• It’s a serious infection of the lungs.  
• Bacteria and virus (or even a fungus) lodge themselves down in the lungs and cause an infection.  
• It’s often at the base of one or both lungs.  
• The body reacts to the bacteria or virus, causing a reaction to get rid of the infection, resulting in inflamed lung tissue with fluid or pus.  

   

What are the causes and how do we know we have pneumonia?  

• There are two basic types: community acquired, and hospital acquired (hospitals are dangerous places for infections!). 
• Risk factors: a weakened immune system, which could be a result of age, a chronic illness like diabetes, asthma, some medications, smoking, or admittance to a hospital.  
• Viruses such as influenza, Covid, and RSV can cause pneumonia, which is why they are dangerous.  
• Main symptoms (can be sudden onset): cough, bringing up phlegm, fever/chills, chest pain, feeling short of breath. 

   

How do we treat pneumonia?  

• It depends on the type.  
• It’s often community acquired and is diagnosed on exam with a chest Xray.  
• Treatment includes antibiotics, fluids, rest, paracetamol. If it’s severe and you have difficulty breathing – go to the hospital.  
• If it’s caused by a virus (influenza or Covid), it’s occasionally treated with an anti-viral medication, however, often paracetamol, fluids, rest are used. Some can end up in hospital with oxygen, or if severe, a ventilator till it gets better.  

   

How do we prevent pneumonia?  

• This is a reason why vaccination so important, preventing things like influenza, Covid, pneumococcal.  
• Quit smoking. 
• A healthy immune system: eat a balanced diet, regular exercise, mange diabetes, or asthma.  

 

If you’re short of breath with a temperature, see your doctor! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
That'd be well, it has been a bit of a
tough few weeks for the Vatican, but the Pope hospitalized
with suspected pneumonia, so we thought we'd better get doctor
Brian Betty and just to give us a bit of
a pneumonia. One oh one. He's with us this morning.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Held a good morning, Oh cure, Jack. Nice to be here.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, nice to be chatting with you. Let's just start
with the absolute most basic question. What is pneumonia?

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Look? Pneumonia? Yeah, Look, it's a very serious lung infection. Now,
it's caused by a bacterial virus or occasionally a fungus,
and the bacteria virus lodges itself down in the lungs
and causes an infection on the lungs. Now, this can
be either often we see at the base of both
lungs and we call that bilateral, or it can be

(00:54):
in one of what we call the lobes of the
lungs are a certain segment. Now, the problem with the
bacteria of virus getting down there is the body can
react to it, so it tries to get rid of
the infection, So you start to get a ten. Because
temperature tries to kill the virus or the bacteria, the
lung becomes inflamed and often it fills up with secretions

(01:14):
of fluid or even in very severe cases puss. And
these are very very serious infection. So, yeah, pneumonia's pnumonia
is generally not a good thing to get.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
No, well, I think even more than generally never never.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Never, Yeah, probably to be stronger.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
So what are the causes and how do you actually
know you have pneumonia?

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Yeah, Look, there's two basic types. One we call community acquired,
so you get it in the community and can develop.
The other one you can get in hospital, and we
call that hospital acquired. Now I'll make your point here.
Hospitals are not great places to be. We have lots
of sick people and infections often travel around, so they've
got quite a high infection rate, and pneumonia is one
of the things that can happen in hospital. Now we

(01:58):
see it often if your immune system is weakends. Now
that happens as you get older. If you've got some
sort of illness such as diabetes or asthma, can increase the risk.
Smoking is a very very big risk factor. We know
smoke it's bad, but it can actually produce pneumonia. And
as I mentioned, actually hospitals are risk fact to for pneumonia.
Now in some cases as viruses such as influenza or covid,

(02:23):
and they can cause pneumonia, which is why they are
so dangerous and we have to be very very careful
about them. And look, the main symptoms can have very
rapid onset, So you can be feeling well and you
feel unwell very quickly. Often there's a very persistent cough.
You can bring up lots of phlegm and colored sputin.

(02:43):
Often fever or chills, grigles and feeling very hot is
a feature. Chest pain and actually feeling shorter breath that's
a really significant factor. So if you're feeling short of
breath and struggling to breathe with a temperature, that's a
signal you really do need to do something.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
So how do you treat pneumonia?

Speaker 3 (03:01):
Look, it depends on the type. So if you see
your GP because you've got a temperature, breathing is a
bit difficult and you're cocking up lots of phlem we
do an examination and often we can pack up the
pneumonia on the examination. We'll often order us chestticks around
those situations, but we start you on antibiotics straight away,
usually for about seven to ten days, plenty of fluids,

(03:21):
paracetamol and antibotic and look, in most cases, if we
get in early, it'll shut things down and it'll cure
the infection. Now, if it gets more severe or if
you get a viral pneumonia, now, the problem with viral
pneumonia is we don't have adequate treatments often, so the
pneumonia is just time for the body to get rid
of it, and we'll treat it with parasital moil and

(03:42):
fluids and time. But if it gets more severe with
your breathing or what's actually happening, Look, you may need
to go into hospital and you need what we call
oxygen support, or in very severe cases you have to
go on a ventilator to actually help the lungs breathe,
and that can lead to a very very poor outcome.
So here we get really concerned of things progressing and

(04:05):
not responding to treatment.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yes, and of course prevention is always preferable to them.
So how do you prevent pneumonia?

Speaker 3 (04:15):
Look? Really important, Look, vaccination's got a role to play. So,
as I said, flue covid can lead to pneumonia, So
getting those vaccinations and keeping them up to data is important.
There is another specific vaccination called new macccle, So if
you're over the age of sixty five, it's not funded.
It's worth talking to your doctor about that because that

(04:36):
stops one of the common causes of pneumonia, which is
striped pneumonia. Stop smoking. Look, we're always going to say that,
but if you want to reduce the chances of something
like that happening, smoking is not a good idea and
looks staying healthy. I suppose balanced diet, exercise, managing diabetes
and asthma is really important. So those those basic things

(04:57):
that we always advise to do I think are important,
immune system healthy and but look baseline, if you are
short of breath and you do you have a temperature,
please please see your doctor and get desisted.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, that's great advice. We really appreciate it. Brian, thank
you so much.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
Thank you for.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
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